YES!! Michigan

A brief summary of my trip to Michigan:

Weekend 1:
Braved whiteouts and -6 degree weather to visit cousins north of Chicago (including this new little guy)



Weekend 2:
Saturday, 8am, awoke to thunderstorms. I could see the lightning through closed eyelids. I went down to the basement to make myself some coffee (my dad has renovated an espresso machine or two, they're in the basement awaiting placement in the new addition) and stepped in a big puddle and got my socks sopping wet. The drain outside the basement door had flooded yet again, from the rain and melting snow.  The thunderstorm was caused by a heatwave (yes, 40 degrees is now considered a heatwave) coming through, the warm rain melted all the snow and there was fog rising up from what remained of the drifts.


This is the view from the house, looking off to the west towards what will soon be apple orchards.


 

Weekend 3:
The highlight of the trip (sorry mom and dad) was getting to see the Siegel-Schwall Band. Hands down the best concert I've ever been too. My dad listened to them in his teens, and their first album was the very first record I ever owned (the second was the Flamin' Groovies).

I gave in to peer pressure and got a picture with Corky Siegel. (the bald guy on the right was their former bass player, who sat across the aisle from my dad and got up to play a song with the band) 


The main purpose for my trip was to help put in the ceiling in my parents new addition (is there a limit on how many years it can be referred to as 'new'?)

we had a lift to get the sheets of plywood up to the 18' ceilings


Marc, me, my dad, putting a sheet on the lift


the scaffolding, viewed from the loft


I manned the lift while the guys screwed the plywood into place 


Then my dad passed the last of the insulation up through a 1'x4' opening to Marc and me 






It was three feet high at the top, sloping down from the peak... Which eventually caused a small encounter with a roofing nail...


I lost.

and here's the moon and  Venus at sunset...


Then I came home.

going back to the land of ice and snow

Ivy is Evil!!

I'm not talking about poison ivy, just yer plain ole Hedera Helix.  It was completely covering a huge chunk of my yard (if you count the planterboxes as 'yard'), the wood underneath is soft and most likely won't last too much longer.  So far I have filled three huge trash bins to overflowing with the ivy I've pulled out of my backyard.  My neighbor generously offered use of his last week.  And I still have at least one more bin's worth to go.  But I did get it out of half of the planterboxes, and off the fence.  I transplanted my zucchini and yellow squash there, along with a couple watermelon, since it gets good sun most of the day.  One of these days I'll get the rest of the ivy out...  
 
(that entire back part was covered from the top of the fence, across the 3' planterbox, down the front of that, and had grown about 3 feet out into the yard.  The newer part of the fence didn't have ivy on it, since it had been torn off when the fence was replaced not too long ago...)

But instead, I've been cleaning, unpacking, figuring out where things go...  I made the most awesome covers for the pillows on my couch.  Pictures coming one of these days.  

I let K talk me into having a game night/house warming party this weekend while my mom is out visiting, so I have to speed up the unpacking process a bit.  Last weekend I finally got something up on the walls in the kitchen, doesn't look so bare now.

 On the back wall (on the left of the pictures) I put a little hanging shelf, the perfect place for my glass polar bear collection.  I just need to get some sticky stuff for their feet so they don't go on walkabout while I'm not looking...  On the other wall (on the right of the pictures) I put my grouping of little mirrors, mixed with some small artwork...  Better for a small space, I think, than one big piece.  


This is directly out the back door (you have to go through the garage to get to the backyard) Last weekend I also got most of my succulents arranged, and up off the ground.  They seem to like it better here.  I'd dug up the onions I'd grown from seed and brought them from my old place.  They immediately started blooming the day I moved in and have been in full poofy bloom ever since  :)

From the garage door, looking out towards the backyard. 


And since I had to leave all my other sunflowers behind, I bought some...  Because every house needs sunflowers.

Not the best pictures, I know.
My camera is still packed away in some box Ihaven't gone through yet.
I'm going to have my mom take some pictures while she's here.

And it's driving me absolutely batty to have a studio and not be in it making art!!!  There's just too much other stuff to do first.  Have to's before want to's.  That's what my dad always said.  Which is good for actually prioritizing what 'needs' to get done, but....  I've been trying to quelch it by doing 'interior decorating', and sewing, but... but I want to paint!!! Oh yeah, I did a little screen printing on one of the pillows though. More on that later.

The use of seat cushions as flotation aids should be a last resort.

But if my living room ever floods, I won't drown.

Yes, I finally got a brand-spanking-new couch!!!
Having only one chair was a little inconvenient. So I caved in :)
I was planning on getting a futon or pull-out couch, but when I went to look at some, none of them were quite up to my standards. I expect that they at least be halfway comfortable in both seating and sleeping positions. They were neither. So I went to Scandinavian Designs, fell in love with this little brown lump, and adopted it right there as my very own. Brought it home in the back of L's truck, sticking out about a foot and a half...




 

"A leopard sprawled in the crook of an acacia tree, rising now and then to bite on the remains of a gazelle he had tucked away in a nearby branch, as one would get up from a couch to find some inviting edible in the refrigerator."

When I'm good, I'm very very good...

And 27% evil. Hehehe.

www.olava.org is 57% evil. Who knew?

But I am now 100% moved out of the old digs, into the new!!!  K and L helped me the first weekend, then I borrowed my grandparents van to finish up. And my grandma and cousin and her new hubby helped on Sunday.  But I'm still only about 30% unpacked.  

I'm still sort of in awe that I found this place.  It's got two bedrooms, which means I finally have my very own studio!!!  And it has wood floors, central heating, a bathtub, closets, and a 'real' kitchen!!!  With dishwasher, cabinets, and room for a table!!  And a garage (with washer/dryer) for my car!  No, the washer/dryer aren't for my car, the garage is!   Well, it's full of boxes and plants at the moment (actually got most of the plants outside yesterday afternoon) but I'll be able to park in it once I'm unpacked.  I have a hall closet!!!  I have a HALL!!!

Way more than I was initially looking for or even thought I could find in my price range.  I almost went for another studio, twice as big as my last place, but still a studio...  But K told me to hold out for what I really wanted, with a separate space for a studio.  She was right (yet again, that girl's invaluable).  I really wasn't counting on them offering me this place, because there were a lot of people at the open house, and one was even a former student of the owner.  
But I guess they must not have behaved themselves in class, cuz now it's MINE!

And there's surprising few places for rent in this area right now.  They're either total dumps or one bedroom apartments/studios (with no yard) for about what I was paying before, or 6 bedroom 'estates' with rent more than my entire income!   I don't have many criteria, but those I do have are non-negotiable. (Has to allow a cat, and have room for a studio and a garden all my own.  And it couldn't be a soul-less box in a huge complex...) 
Since I found this place (second week of April) I've kept an eye on what else is out there, and there's absolutely nothing that I would even be remotely interested in living in!  I was actually even considering the possibility of having to live in an apartment, or moving to Santa Rosa or Rohnert Park.  K tells me that I live a charmed life.  She may be right.

So now comes the monumental task of unpacking.  
I even got everything out of my storage unit, mostly art supplies, tools, books, records... 
I'm setting things aside as I unpack, so I can have a garage sale this summer...

Here's my new living room, from the door to the kitchen:


It's a work in progress.  I finally, finally, finally get to have my records with me again!!!  That's them on the right, in the bottom of the glass shelves under the window.  Which also happens to be the perfect spot for my orchids.  So far.  They're still alive after two days, we'll see if they still like it there in a few months...  

Next on the agenda is finding a sofa.  I need to get a pull-out, or a futon, so people don't have to sleep on an air mattress on the floor when they come visit.  I kind of need more than one chair for people to sit on.  Fights have almost broken out over that chair, because nobody wants to be the only one on a chair when everyone else is on the floor.  Might be kinda funny if it wasn't so sad :P


It is quite a spectacular chair though, don't you think? It's Swedish, and won a design award.  Mine has a different fabric, due for reupholstering soon. And my stool is in pieces at the moment, need to reassemble that too.

Really, the garden is absolute first on the agenda.  
I felt kind of bad leaving my old garden as bare as I did.  But not really.  It's not as bare as it was when I moved in.  I left the grass and less than a dozen plants (not counting what was already there when I moved in)... but since they're selling the place, I figure they can just plant one or two plants, throw some bark on the rest of it and it'll match the rest of the yards 'landscaping'. (see pictures below)







Move-In, July 2006 





June/September 2007





Move-Out, May 2008




It just seems bare now because I had so much planted. I didn't realize just how much until I had everything out in pots. Yikes!!!  I took almost everything I could reasonably expect to live through replanting. I lost the first wave of rosebuds in the move, but the plants are doing ok, and should sprout new buds in a month or so. Everything else is doing great so far.

I just need to get things in the ground now.  There's planter beds along two sides of my new yard, but at the moment they're overrun with ivy! Kind of pretty, but if I want to plant anything else, it all has to come out. But after two weeks of going nonstop, I just don't have the energy or strength to pull it out right now.
I must have mentioned it to my boss when I was telling her about my new place, because yesterday she came to me and asked me if I wanted the empty planter boxes and barrels on the back deck at work.  I guess when they were in this building years ago they'd had a 'garden committee', and had a bunch of flowers planted in them, but now they're just old wooden boxes filled with nice fluffy dried up dirt.  So I took 5 home yesterday, and got my tomatoes and squash replanted in them.  They'll need to be replanted as they grow bigger, but it'll do for now, better than the little plastic pots.  There's a couple more small boxes that need some work before being used again, the metal band holding the bottoms together is gone, and I'll need help getting the two wine barrels from the front porch...  But that can wait a few weeks.
I also got some plants in the ground out in the front yard yesterday, a couple little rose bushes, lavender, a patch of crocosmia, a couple Heuchera (ok, I'll quit being nerdy, 'Coral Bells') a couple other bulbs that might be Amaryllis?  Only a few more still in pots that need to be planted soon.  The rest can wait until I get the beds cleared.
As soon as I get the plants stable (and off those pesky life support machines) I'll get started on the studio.  Can't wait to start painting again! I'll be able to set up a still life and not have to move it to have room to eat dinner! It's been a while since I had an actual studio, I'm still a little giddy about it :)

The downsides (so far):
No free internet.
The ivy in the planter beds.
Afternoon traffic noise:  it's right on the corner next to Bodega Ave.  
My neighbor smokes in her backyard (right up against mine)

But overall, I'd say the plusses far outweight the minuses...

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. ~Hubert H. Humphrey


In this case, the two have worked hand in hand.

I've lived in the same place, a (less than) 300 square foot studio basement apartment, for almost two years now. I won't go into all the details, but apparently my neighbor doesn't like my landlords... So, I have to find a new place to live. Of course, I found this out only days after building planter boxes and getting my garden planted. My new home will be bigger, better, with room for an actual art studio. Working/sleeping/eating/living in one small room just isn't working well for me, so it'll be nice to find a new space. A bit nerve wracking though, there's not very many places available that meet my requirements. Damn these high standards and low budget.


I did find one place, the most adorable two bedroom duplex (complete with garage, backyard and hardwood floors). I'm waiting to hear back from the owners right now. I hate waiting. Especially when she told me she'd checked everything on my application, and my references and everything was 'just glowing'. What does that mean?!? I'm hoping that it means that by the end of the month I'll be figuring out how to afford $300 more than I'm paying right now.




How hard it is to escape from places.

However carefully one goes they hold you -

you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences -

like rags and shreds of your very life.

~Katherine Mansfield